Discussion Topic

Jeff Elison and I have been researching fear as it relates to climbing and we recently wrote an article about the tradeoff of having the right amount of fear (or arousal) for rock climbing. You can read the whole article at the link below.

Master Yourself:
Fear is our body telling us we have not settled two questions
1. We have not decided we are entirely willing to pay the probable price of a fall from this point.
2. We do not know well our chance of a fall.
Master Climbing:
No one masters climbing. There is always more that can be done. As worded, the goal is simple self-agrandisement.
Master the Rock:
The rock is millions of years old. It does not even know you are there.
It will still be there millions of years after you have gone.

Fear becomes a player when you have made an error in judgement. At that point you have no reason to assume you will not make another error.

Master Yourself:
Fear is our body telling us we have not settled two questions
1. We have not decided we are entirely willing to pay the probable price of a fall from this point.
2. We do not know well our chance of a fall.

Very much like the general risk model involving any endeavor--directly proportional to both the probability of a particular occurrence and the severity of that outcome.

Fear becomes a player when you have made an error in judgement. At that point you have no reason to assume you will not make another error.

Seems to be a sport climbing take on this. What I've learned from rock climbing is how to deal with fear and use it, particularly when my back is against the wall and I have to get out of a situation and make the right decisions under pressure. I know that the fear is normal and I just have to put up with it the way I would have to put up with a toothache. This is when people run away, but there are lots of things you can't run away from and its good to be able to handle that environment. The fear factor is what gets most people addicted to climbing, and without it you're just playing in a gym.